


The Days Before Thunder

by silverfoxflower



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Animals, Alternate Universe - College/University, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-07
Updated: 2014-08-07
Packaged: 2018-02-12 03:33:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2094144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silverfoxflower/pseuds/silverfoxflower
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“He was wearing a muzzle, Darcy. What kind of an owner puts a muzzle on a <i>cat</i>?” Jane asked heatedly, holding the cat - newly dubbed Loki - in the bathtub as she steadily sprayed the soap foam out of his fur.</p><p>“One who doesn’t have that much blood to lose?” Darcy asked dubiously, looking at the steadily growing number of scratches on Jane’s hands and forearms. Thor lunged forward and Darcy tugged him back by his collar. “Hey Jane, I think Thor’s in love with the new guy.”</p><p>“Thor’s in love with everybody,” Jane cooed, turning to kiss Thor on the nose, earning an excited bark and an even more excited pounce, knocking both Jane and Darcy over in a spray of soapy water.</p><p>Loki saw his chance and he took it. Like a flash, the wet cat dashed out the door.  A second later Thor bounded after, barking playfully.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Days Before Thunder

**Author's Note:**

  * For [butterfly_effect](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=butterfly_effect).



> This wasn't one of the pairings you specified, butterfly-effect, but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless!

“You might have a Stray Problem,” Darcy said as Jane walked in, cardboard box in hand. She was drenched from head to toe in rainwater, dripping pitifully on the floor. The box was disintegrating in her fingers, but she was still holding it to her chest with all the force her skinny little arms could muster as it visibly squirmed.

“You don’t know what’s in here!” Jane declared, her breath going high and pitchy, “I could’ve found some … old books in the corner of the alley and decided to adopt them.”

Thor jumped off of Darcy’s lap and padded over, his tongue hanging out of his mouth. He woofed curiously, nosing at the bottom of the box as it burst open and a black cat fell out, landing on Thor’s head with a yowl.

\--

“He was wearing a muzzle, Darcy. What kind of an owner puts a muzzle on a _cat_?” Jane asked heatedly, holding the cat - newly dubbed Loki - in the bathtub as she steadily sprayed the soap foam out of his fur.

“One who doesn’t have that much blood to lose?” Darcy asked dubiously, looking at the steadily growing number of scratches on Jane’s hands and forearms. Thor lunged forward and Darcy tugged him back by his collar. “Hey Jane, I think Thor’s in love with the new guy.”

“Thor’s in love with everybody,” Jane cooed, turning to kiss Thor on the nose, earning an excited bark and an even more excited pounce, knocking both Jane and Darcy over in a spray of soapy water.

Loki saw his chance and he took it. Like a flash, the wet cat dashed out the door. A second later Thor bounded after, barking playfully.

\--

They found Loki cornered behind the bookcase, hissing and spitting as Thor dogged the narrow entrance, butting his head against it repeatedly as he whined.

“Come on, big guy. No means no.” Darcy took a hold of Thor’s collar and dragged him off, but still Loki wouldn’t leave the corner.

“Should we move the bookcase?” Jane wondered worriedly. “I hope he doesn’t hurt himself back there.”

“Just put out some food and let’s see if the little Drama Llama comes out during the night.”

\--

The next morning, Darcy woke up wheezing, trying to breathe under the heavy, furry weight on her chest.

It was Loki, staring at her unblinkingly with glowing green eyes.

Thor, who knew he wasn’t allowed on the bed, whined from the floor.

\--

“You’re lucky you’re so cute,” Darcy scowled over the breakfast table, watching Jane spoon cereal into her mouth with three scientific papers laid out in front of her. She seemed to be reading them simultaneously and occasionally a spoonful of cereal would drift dangerously towards the ‘v’ of her sleep shirt rather than her mouth. 

“Are you talking to me or the cat?” Jane asked, as Loki climbed onto her lap. Flicking a disdainful look at Jane, Loki dipped his paw into Jane’s cereal bowl and withdrew it, lapping up the milk with his tongue. Jane didn’t notice and continued eating. 

“Who even knows anymore?” Darcy sighed airily, “You’re both adorable pains in my ass.”

“You have a nice ass.” Jane said, fluttering her eyelashes.

“Your sinister plan to butter me up with compliments is _not_ happening, Jane!” Darcy said, raising her pointer finger towards the ceiling. “It’s true, though,” she added as an afterthought. “I do.”

Loki stuck his head inside Jane’s cereal bowl and began loudly lapping at it.

//

Once upon a time, Darcy and Jane were paired up as random roommates in a college dorm. For the first month or so, Darcy actually thought Jane was this boring little nerd who would spend all her time in some physics lab and give Darcy owlly little looks as she got on with her shenanigans. (Hey, Darcy was a Poli Sci major. There were no jobs out there for poor, unfortunate souls like her. It was allllll downhill after graduation so she might as well live it up now).

Then one night, Darcy woke up to see Jane smuggling an injured golden retriever into their dorm room.

“What the fuck?” she exclaimed as 100+ pounds of wet dog started bounding all over their small room, running into the desks and knocking over papers. Darcy scrambled for the light as Jane pulled at the dog’s collar and made cooing noises.

“I hit him with my car,” she said sheepishly.

“What?” Darcy rubbed at her eye with the heel of her hand, still not entirely convinced this wasn’t an elaborate and slightly horrible dream. “What were you doing driving this late?”

“Chasing the magnetic storm,” Jane said, suddenly enthusiastic. “I was tracking the patterns of electromagnetic flux over decades of atmospheric disturbances-“

“Okay,” Darcy said, cutting her off. She was well and truly awake and there was nothing she could do about it, so she swung her feet off of the side of the bed. “How’d you manage to be so boring even when doing something so cool?”

Jane shut her mouth and gave Darcy a hurt look.

“You know this dorm has a no-pets policy, right?”

“He has a collar,” Jane said, “So he has to have an owner.” She and the dog both looked at Darcy with big eyes. “Can we just let him sleep here for the night? I promise I’ll find a vet tomorrow morning.” She was wearing an oversized flannel shirt with a denim jacket over it, looking so small and sweet, no one would suspect she was actually such a fucking troublemaker. It was an eye opener for Darcy, anyway.

“We should find a vet _now_ ,” Darcy said, pulling out her phone and googling _24-hour veterinarians in my area who don’t charge money_. “He could have, I dunno. Internal injuries or something.”

The first name that popped up was a Dr. Erik Selvig.

“Is he any good?” Jane asked worriedly. 

“Jesus, I don’t know.” Darcy said, sliding out of bed. “It’s not like people rate their vets on Yelp.” She squinted at her phone again. “Oh wait, spoke too soon. Totally overestimated the number of people who have lives.” She tossed her phone to Jane as she started pulling on clothes. Thor leapt up and tried to catch it in his mouth, but and Jane _slapped_ it away from him, resulting in the phone flying across the room and landing on Jane’s bed. 

“Um.” Jane said. 

“You’re lucky it’s a piece of shit anyways,” Darcy yawned, pulling a hoodie over her head. 

Jane walked across the room and retrieved her phone, Thor pressing against her knees with every step. “This woman gave Dr. Selvig three stars for his bedside manner.” 

Darcy shrugged one shoulder as she stepped into her jeans. “Not like we’re gonna make _friends_ with the guy.” 

\--

“ _Another_ one?” Erik asked, scrubbing his hands in the examination room sink.

“Yeah, well. You know how she is.” Darcy said as she wheeled in Loki. They didn’t have a cat-sized kennel so they had just put Loki in the Thor-sized one. He was currently pressed into the very back of it, hissing angrily. 

“Did she run this one over too?” Erik asked dryly, hunkering down to take a peek. When he came too close, Loki attacked, shrieking as he stuck his paws through the bars and swiped at Erik’s face. With a startled shout, Erik reared back and ended up falling on his ass.

“He was muzzled, apparently,” Darcy said. “Who would ever wanna do that to _this_ charmer?”

“Cats are evil.” Erik muttered, pulling himself up to his feet.

“Hey, you’re a vet, you can’t say that! Isn’t it speciest or something?”

“Okay, correction. _This_ cat is evil.” Erik walked to his cabinet and pulled out his thick animal-wrangling gloves that went all the way up to his elbow. “And that’s my professional opinion.”

//

The veterinary clinic had a little, beat-up Open 24 Hours sign flickering in its window, but Dr. Selvig still looked super pissed at having been woken up in the middle of the night. 

“So, uh,” Darcy said, slipping her cold hands into her hoodie pocket. “This isn’t going to cost anything, right? Bystander Law?”

Dr. Selvig looked up from where he was examining the dog. “That prevents you from getting arrested if you give unlicensed First Aid to an accident victim.”

“Okay, but Jane’s doing a good deed here! She could’ve just left that dog on the road and _not_ tried to get him help!”

“She could’ve not run the dog over in the first place,” Dr. Selvig replied, “Thereby avoiding dragging me out of bed in the middle of the night to have an inane conversation you apparently don’t want to pay me for.”

“He completely came out of nowhere,” Jane said, stroking the dog’s head as his tail thumped against the examining room table. “It was like he fell out of the sky and smacked into my truck!”

“Look, just, I don’t know, check if he’s bleeding from the inside or something,” Darcy said. “We’re gonna find the real owners in the morning, so you can stick _them_ with the bill.”

“His name is Thor,” Jane read from the tag on the collar. “And there’s no address but he’s from somewhere called Asgard?”

“Thor, dog of Thunder,” Dr. Selvig snorted. “How appropriate.”

\--

“Why’d you decide to name him Loki?” Jane asked, petting Darcy’s feet absent-mindedly as Darcy dug her toes into Jane’s thigh. They were lazing on the couch, Jane with her Advanced Quantum Mechanics textbook and Darcy with her laptop, ostensibly writing an essay but mostly wasting her time with twitter.

“You know,” Darcy said, “Loki. Thor. Seemed to fit the theme.” She peeked around her laptop to where Loki was curled up on the very top of their highest bookshelf. Thor was at the foot of it, chewing quietly on a rawhide.

Jane smiled, and they worked in silence for a while.

“Hey,” Darcy said, pushing her laptop away from her. “Tell me about the sciencey stuff you’re doing. “

“This is just my physics homework,” Jane said, “But yesterday, I was setting up my equipment on the field and I detected an influx of magnetic particle energy …”

Darcy smiled as she listened. She understood maybe ten percent of what Jane was saying but she enjoyed the bright-eyed enthusiasm. Jane was just _cute_ when she got to ramble. 

//

“You didn’t have to offer to drive, you know,” Jane said, as they pulled out of the student parking lot. She was in the back seat of Darcy’s car, clutching Thor. It was the only way to keep him from sticking his head in the front seat and licking everything he could reach.

“Well, your truck has a big-ass dent in it, and I’m a master procrastinator, so win-win.” Darcy said, checking her rearview mirror. They were off to Asgard Ranch, which, as Jane had found online, was a no-kill dog shelter more than eight hours away by car. So weekend roadtrip it was. How Thor had made it all the way to their part of New Mexico was anyone’s guess.

Jane looked out the window, petting Thor steadily as he settled with his head on her lap. They were just getting to that point of awkward silence where Darcy was reaching for the radio knob when Jane said,

“You have an ipod hookup for that thing?”

“… yeah,” Darcy said slowly. “Mine was stolen though.”

“Here,” Jane reached over the lump of dog and handed Darcy hers. “Plug it in.”

Darcy took it gingerly, flicking her eyes to and from the road as she scrolled through it. “Oh.” She said. “Your taste isn’t bad.”

“My mom had a thing for 80’s power ballads. The classic rock is all mine.” Jane said, “Why? What’d you expect?”

“A bunch of classical music? I dunno.” Darcy hooked it up to the stereo.

“I did play the violin when I was a kid,” Jane said as the first strings of Hotel California began floating through the car. “I was _so awful_. I think it traumatized me to music without lyrics.”

“Okay but karaoke,” Darcy said, smiling in the rearview mirror.

“Um no.” Jane said. “Not that. Never that.”

“ _Everyone_ karaokes,” Darcy corrected, laughing. “It’s just a sliding scale of necessary alcohol intake to tone-deafness.”

//

Twenty minutes later they had the windows down, belting out “Fat Bottomed Girls” as they sped through the desert.

Thor howled along, surprisingly on-key for a dog.

//

They arrived at Asgard around dinner time, Jane climbing out of the car yawning after a nap.

“We’re here?” She sounded sad, clutching at Thor’s collar as they stood in front of the large ranch house with its colorful, flowery front yard. Thor, as if sensing Jane’s anxiety, pressed close to her knee and whined. Though, when the door opened and a woman walked out he ripped away from Jane’s hands and bounded over to her.

“Thor!” The woman cried happily, dropping to her knees in the middle of the dirt path to throw her arms around him. Thor licked at her face enthusiastically, his tail wagging so hard it made his entire body vibrate. The woman looked up at Jane and Darcy with tears in her eyes. “We thought we’d lost him.”

Darcy looked over at Jane, who was smiling as miserably as anyone could.

//

Frigga was the woman’s name, and she was ethereal in that Southwest Goddess-nouveau aesthetic. Long, flowing grey/blonde hair over loose layers of dresses. Crystal jewelry hanging from her neck and wrists. She _insisted_ they stay for dinner. Jane started to protest but Darcy’s stomach cut that offreal quick.

“This is my husband, Odin.” She introduced a man snoring on a futon in the next room. “He’ll be up once he smells dinner.”

As they strolled through the ranch house, Thor bounded from Frigga to Jane to Darcy, as if excited to show each of them off to the other. Jane kept sniffling, but she stroked his ears every time he came over.

“I’ll show you to the yards,” Frigga said with a smile. She unlocked the back door onto a gigantic fenced yard. Darcy could see hutches in the corner, and four dogs chasing each other from end to end. Thor ran to join them, barking happily. “We got Sif,” Frigga said, pointing to the Doberman pinscher gnawing at Thor’s ear. “Hogun,” a solemn-looking Schnauzer. “Volgstagg,” the largest, some Saint Bernard mix that leapt on Thor and started wrestling roughly with him. “Fandral,” An overexcited Pomeranian that kept jumping around, yipping. 

A tall, extremely gorgeous man walked by, lugging a bag of dog food.

“And that’s Heimdall,” Frigga said, shielding her eyes from the sun as she waved to him. “He’s the local vet. Volunteers here on the weekends.” Heimdall waved back, then disappeared into a far shed.

“Thor seems really happy to be back with his friends,” Darcy elbowed Jane.

“Let’s let the pups play while we eat,” Frigga said, closing the door.

//

“So how did Thor … escape?” Jane asked, sipping coffee after the plates have been cleared away.

“Thor’s been with us the longest of all the pups,” Frigga sighed, “But he is first and foremost a family dog. He craves individual attention, which is hard to provide with dozens of animals coming in and out on a regular basis. A couple in Gallup swung by a while ago, looking to adopt. They took off with him, but when we called a month later to check up, they said that he was too _rambunctious_ and _had too much energy_. We offered to go pick him up but they’d already let him run off to God knows where.”

“That’s _awful!_ ” Jane exclaimed.

Frigga shook her head slowly, “He is really a very sweet dog.”

The back door opened and Heimdall walked in. “Thought Thor might want to say goodbye,” he said, smiling.

With a woof, Thor bounded over to Jane and Darcy, snuffling at their knees before Jane slid down to give him a hug.

“Well.” Darcy said, glancing out the window. “It’s getting kind of late. We should really get going.”

“Of course.” Frigga said, watching Jane. “He’s really very attached to you, you know.”

“Jane,” Darcy hissed. “ _No._ ”

Jane looked up at Darcy. Then Thor looked up at Darcy. Both of them were looking up at Darcy with gigantic eyes. Horrible gigantic puppy eyes.

“There are tens of thousands of different reasons why this is a horrible idea.” Darcy said, as Thor walked forward and licked her knuckles. She sighed and patted him on the head. “Dammit.”

//

Since it was a mild night, they decided to drive to a nearby campsite, unroll sleeping bags and sleep under the stars instead of springing for a hotel room. The cooler Darcy had stashed away earlier ended up leaking all over of the back of the trunk, but at least the beer wasn’t lukewarm.

“But neither of us are 21,” Jane said, taking the bottle gingerly when Darcy handed her one.

“Don’t worry about it.” Darcy said, and popped off the top with her bottle-opener keychain. It _gushed_ , foaming over her fingers. Both of them jumped back, laughing. Thor barked happily, running circles around them like he thought they were playing a game. “Just a drink to celebrate the new dog,” Darcy said, licking the foam off of her knuckles. When she looked up, Jane was staring at her by the light of their outdoor lantern.

A strange, charged moment passed between them before Jane turned away and took a long swig of her own bottle.

And of _course_ Jane was a lightweight. One and a half beers in and she was giggling like a kid with a sugar high, rubbing her face against Darcy’s shoulder as they perched on the hood of her car. Away from the city, the night sky was absolutely _slathered_ with stars. Darcy, for the first time in her life, felt something close to _awe_. 

Thor snored quietly under the bumper, beating his tail against the dusty ground. 

“See those three bright stars?” Jane asked, and Darcy followed the line of her finger to the constellation. “That’s  
. And they’re named that, of course, because you can only see them overhead at night during the Summer. Vega is in the constellation Lyra, Latin for lyre. Altair-“ she glanced at Darcy, then quieted. “Sorry. I tend to ramble.”

“You’re cool,” Darcy said, bumping Jane with her elbow. “It’s cute. You really like this stuff, huh?”

“It’s all I’ve ever wanted to do.” Jane beamed, looking up at the sky. “You know those glow-in-the-dark star things? Well, when I was a kid, my parents put them up on my ceiling.”

“Sounds cute,” Darcy said, though she didn’t have the kind of parents that gave that much of a shit.

“I _loved_ them. Used to count them every night before I went to sleep.” Jane said. “Until middle school, when I got a book on constellations and realized that all the ones in my room were _wrong_.”

“Ooh,” Darcy winced, “Trauma.”

“I went back to my room and I ripped off all the stars and tried to put them in longitudinally-accurate positions,” Jane continued, “But removing them had made the glue weak and by morning they were all scattered over my bed and I had lost so many.”

She sniffled and rolled into Darcy’s shoulder. “Uh,” Darcy said, awkwardly putting her arms around Jane. “There, there.” 

The weight of Jane on her chest was actually … sweet. She was light. Warm. Her hair smelled really fucking nice.

 _Jesus_ , Darcy thought, as Jane snuffled wetly into the crook of her neck. _I’m in so much trouble._

They lay like that for a while, surrounded by the quiet hum of desert insects and Thor’s little snores. The night sky lay over them like a blanket, and finally Darcy could understand why Jane loved this so much.

“I’m going to have to move out of the dorm,” Jane said softly, her fingers tightening on the curve of Darcy’s waist. “They’ll probably … find a new roommate for you soon. But you might have a single for a while!” She finished with false cheer.

Darcy blew out a long puff of air. “Fuck that noise, I’m coming with you.”

Jane’s head popped up with comical enthusiasm, a strand of hair falling over her forehead. “Really?”

“ _Duh_ ,” Darcy said, pushing back the piece of hair, “How am I supposed to break in new meat when I’ve just gotten used to you? Also,” she said, feeling blinded by Jane’s growing smile. “You are _not_ getting sole custody of the dog.”

“Yay!” Jane yelled, then lunged forward, her face coming closer, so close until she-

 _kissed_ Darcy. A smash of lips and teeth and a little tongue.

When Jane drew back she had a faintly _horrified_ look on her face. “Um.”

“Um is right.” Darcy said, as Jane flopped over to the other half of the car hood. They were silent for a minute, both looking up at the stars. The harmless, uncomplicated stars. 

“So what’re we going to do?” Jane asked in a whisper.

Darcy rolled to her side, propping herself up on her elbow. “You know me,” she said, taking a handful of Jane’s t-shirt and gently tugging her forward. “I _never_ know what I’m doing.”

This time the kiss was perfect.

\--

Darcy ended her run early because it began to rain. Just a drizzle, but it thickened into a downpour by the time she reached home.

“Oh well,” she told Thor, who looked at most half his size with his fur plastered to his body. “Just consider this a preemptive shower.”

Thor woofed in agreement.

The door to the apartment complex banged open, and Jane rushed out. She was wearing one slipper, a fisherman’s sweater and boxers.

“Loki escaped!” She cried, almost slipping on the concrete steps and flailing for the edge of the door.

“Okay, calm down.” Darcy said. “We’ll find him.” She glanced at Thor. “I have an idea.”

They found one of Loki’s cat toys and stuck it under Thor’s nose, which he snuffed at curiously for a few seconds. Then he sat back on his haunches and panted, cocking his head like he was saying, _now what?_

“Uh,” Darcy said, shooing him onto the sidewalk. “Find! Find Loki!”

At the mention of Loki’s name, Thor’s ears perked up, but he didn’t move.

“The rain must’ve washed away the scent,” Jane said, her shoulders slumping.

“Where’s Loki?” Darcy got down on her haunches, rubbing her palms against the sides of Thor’s muzzle. “Where’s your bratty little friend? What if he gets hit by lighting, huh? You want that on your conscience?”

Thor woofed, his head turning to the apartment. He trotted towards the front, then veered around, to the trash bin in the back. Darcy grabbed Jane’s ice-cold hand and they followed, clothes squishing every step of the way.

They found Loki under a folded cardboard box, a mess of wet fur and pathetic eyes. Thor nosed away the cardboard and started licking at him, probably intending comfort but really doing nothing more than making Loki yowl pathetically. 

“Aw,” Darcy slowly extracted Loki from Thor’s enthusiasm, pressing him to her chest. He was so tired he didn’t even struggle. Just mewed at her until she took off her hoodie and swaddled him in it.

Jane smiled, a flash of white teeth in the rain. She was soggy. Shivering. So beautiful that Darcy could hardly stand it. They both burst into relieved laughter as thunder boomed overhead and Thor danced around them.

“How many times has it rained in New Mexico in the past two years?” Darcy yelled over the storm.

“Three times that I remember!” Jane said, grabbing Thor’s leash.

Darcy turned her head to the sky, letting the rainwater slide into her mouth. “Dog of thunder!” She screamed to the heavens. In gratitude. A proud declaration. 

“Come on,” Jane said, “Let’s go home.”

And they did.


End file.
